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THE NEW SOUTH 




By JOSEPH Gr. BROWN, 

PRESIDEINT CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK, 

Raleigh, N. C. 



THE NEW SOUTH 



ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT THE CONVENTION 

OF THE 

AMERICAN BANKERS' ASSOCIATION 

AT NEW ORLEANS 
November n, 1902 



By Joseph Gf Brown, 

PRESIDENT CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK, 
RALEIGH, N. C. 



RALEIGH, N. C. 

Edwards & Broughton, Printers and Binders 

1902 



V 215 



.change 

i dvereity 
L 1 2 1933 






THE NEW SOUTH. 



In the long life of the great lawgiver of Israel there 
were three eventful periods. The first of these covered 
that portion of his life which was spent amid the luxuri- 
ous surroundings of an Egyptian court, as the adopted 
son of royalty. The second began when he chose to 
be loyal and true to his own people, and with them to 
endure poverty and want, rather than remain the petted 
son of the king's daughter and enjoy all the pleasures 
that wealth and power could give. This epoch in his 
life was one of loneliness and privation, as well as one 
of preparation for the great life work to which he had 
been called. The third and last period was spent in 
the service of his people, leading them out of bondage, 
guiding them through the wilderness, strengthening 
their faith and their courage, and inciting them to noble 
lives, by which they would be fitted for the enjoyment 
of that land which God had promised to their fathers. 

In like manner, the life of the people of the South may 
be divided into three distinct periods, almost parallel in 
their nature with the unique career of Israel's leader. 
Prior to the civil war our Southern land, although 
sparsely populated, was the home of culture and refine- 
ment. With thousands of slaves to cultivate their broad 
acres, our people lived in ease and plenty. But the war 
came, like a besom of destruction, carrying blight and 
devastation in its path, tearing down homes, laying 
waste the (owns, destroying the young manhood and 
reducing to want and penury the women of the land. 
Then came the long-to-be-remembered days, following 
the close of the war. May we not with propriety call 



4 The New South. 

(his the resurrection period? For all that contributed 

to the peace and prosperity of the Southland was dead 
save the spirit of her people. There is a law of nature 
that out of death comes life. The grain of corn is 
buried in the earth, and from its dying mass there 
comes lite new shoot, the new blade, the new stalk which 
bears the new fruit. So, out of the dead Confederacy 
came the new life, the new energy, the new spirit that 
gives to me the topic for this occasion. If I could wield 
the brush of an artist as best illustrating these three 
periods 1 would spread on the canvas before your eyes 
three parallel pictures. First, that of the old plantation 
home. The "great house," as it was called, stands 
yonder upon its lofty hill — a great house in fact, with its 
many rooms, its spacious halls, its broad verandas, all 
betokening the rich hospitality that was so graciously 
dispensed. In front of the house, along the foot of the 
sloping lawn, sluggishly flows the beautiful river. Be- 
hind the house and beyond the barns and stables, are a 
hundred neat cabins, with the little negro children play- 
ing about the doors, their cheerful mothers and older 
sisters bustling about inside, or keeping time in song 
to the music of the spinning-wheel; while, in the broad 
fields beyond, the fathers are tilling the ground. In 
the evening time, just as the reflected rays of the setting- 
sun are making glorious the banks of clouds along the 
southern horizon, the melody of negro voices is heard, 
as the laborers return from the field; and, by and by, 
when the frugal meal has been eaten, and the chores are 
done, again is heard the weird negro voice, accompanied 
by the stirring notes of the old banjo; and presently the 
shuffling feet of men and women and the [teals of merry 
laughter tell of the happy free-froni-care life of the old 
plantation home. 



The New South. 5 

But another scene rises before my vision. Four years 
of cruel war have passed, and we are brought to the 
year of grace, 1865. Along the country road, which 
follows the course of the river, slowly and painfully 
trudges a man in tattered gray. By his side hangs an 
empty sleeve, lie seems downcast, dejected, but as he 
nears the site of the old homestead his spirit seems to 
revive; he quickens his pace, and a sweet smile plays 
over his countenance. He pauses upon the brow of the 
hill, from which can be had the first view of the dear 
old home, from which he went, a strong, brave, hopeful 
man, four years before. lie shades his eyes. He looks 
about him in every direction — and again turns longingly 
toward the site of the old home. His bosom heaves, the 
tears run down his cheeks, a look of inexpressible sorrow 
conies over his face. The old home is gone. Only the 
bare, blackened chimneys and the debris about them 
mark the place where it stood. There is the same grassy 
lawn sloping dowu to the river's bank ; the same familiar 
trees stand here and there in the yard ; there is the same 
old well from whose oaken bucket he had so often 
quenched his thirst in boyhood days; the same sun is 
shining down from the heavens, but it looks upon home 
no more. Pausing only long enough to regain his com- 
posure, he brushes the tears from his cheeks, and with 
determined step turns toward the negro cabins, where 
appears the only sign of life about the place. As he 
approaches the nearest cabin, an old gray-haired man, 
who is resting under the shade of the trees, catches sight 
of him, and, rising, comes with tottering steps to meet 
him. From the cabin door, attracted by the joyful ex- 
clamation of the aged man, there comes at the same time 
a sweet faced woman, clad in plain homespun garb, 
her sleeves rolled to the elbows, having been evidently 



(> The New South. 

interrupted in her household duties. At a glance she 
recognizes the visitor, and rushes forward. Thus the 
father and mother meet their returning soldier boy. 
Doubtless the angels in heaven dropped tears of pity 
at the anguish of these people as each saw the sad 
changes wrought in the other during the four years of 
separation. But I may not dwell on this scene. It is 
but one of thousands familiar throughout our South- 
land at this period. The son and parents are happy 
that they are reunited. Briefly the experiences of the 
four years are recounted, and then plans for the future 
are discussed. The cabin in which the old folks are 
living is the only one occupied. The others are empty. 
desolate. The negroes are gone. But, although the 
body of the young man is weak, and one strong arm is 
missing, there is a soul within that is strong and buoy- 
ant, and this gives him inspiration. So, not many days 
elapse before there is a great transformation in the 
appearance of things. New life seems breathed into the 
old place, and by degrees it is rebuilt, and becomes the 
original of my third picture. 

Once more we stand on the banks of the river, upon 
Avhose bosom now float majestic steamers. We look 
with admiration upon the beautiful green of the sloping 
lawn, and upon the graveled walks that lead up to the 
front of the handsome, modern structure, evidently a 
home of wealth and culture. At a little distance we 
see a mammoth building, with a great smoke-stack 
pointing heavenward, and from its myriad windows 
there come the musical hum of the whirring machinery 
ami the gladsome voices of the happy operatives of a 
great cotton mill. Behind the house are the barns and 
stables, and in the distance large herds of cattle are 
grazing in the rich pasturage, while in other directions 



The New South. 7 

are waving fields of grain, and broad acres of cotton 
reflecting in its snowy sheen the glad sunlight of heaven. 
Adown the river, we see a bustling town, sprung up as 
if by magic, under the touch of the genius of the youth 
who. but a little while ago, came back in the tattered 
gray from scenes of blood and carnage. This, too, is 
but one of many similar scenes which go to make up 
the new South. 

The pictures that I have drawn are true to life. The 
<lose of the war found, indeed, a desolate, devastated 
country, its farms run down, its property gone, and its 
people, all too unused to work, crushed aud broken- 
hearted, not only because their property had been swept 
away, but also because their strong men had either fallen 
in battle, or had come back broken in health and with 
shattered frames. They went away boys, with light 
hearts aud joyous anticipations of the future. They 
came back men, bowed down with disappointment and 
sorrow, and facing the greatest problem ever presented 
to any people — that of the proper adjustment of the 
two races in their new relations to each other. Then 
it was, as never before, the world saw the true glory of 
the South as it shone out in her noble womanhood. 
Reared in luxury, as she was, with strong arms to pro- 
vide for and protect her, and with obedient, docile slaves 
to do her every bidding and to gratify her every wish, 
it is wonderful with what ease she adapted herself to 
changed conditions. With her own delicate hands she 
began to do the drudgery work of the humble home, 
while with her glad, hopeful heart she cheered and helped 
the more despondent husband and brother, and inspired 
in the breast of the boys a determination to rebuild the 
lost fortunes, and to re-establish the land of their birth 
and of their love. There was nothing to build upon, 



8 The New South. 

however, save the uncared-for land, and the indomitable 
pluck of her people. The story that tells of their strug- 
gles and their difficulties, their failures aud their vic- 
tories, is one of thrilling- interest, but I can undertake 
only to present a few figures to show results. Interest- 
ing indeed are the figures that tell of her wonderful 
prosperity. But, before presenting these figures, let me 
say that the topic assigned me is a misleading one. 
There is no new South, exeept as there is a new North, 
or East, or West. Ours is the same old South which, in 
I lie early days of the Republic, gave her sous for free- 
dom, and in days of peace gave them to her country as 
statesmen to aid in building up for her the greatest 
and best government the world has ever known. 

This South of ours is very much like the popular 
society belle. She never tires of listening to pleasant 
things about herself, and she is always ready for you 
to tell her again the same sweet old story of her beauty 
and her charms. 

1 have told you that the South had practically nothing 
at the close of the war. The world looked on in amaze- 
ment at the ease with which France met the install- 
ments of the enormous penalty imposed by her victorious 
foe at the close of the Franco-German war. The South, 
after enduring a Avar four times as long, paid in one 
vast lump sum a penalty five times as large, the money 
value of her slaves being that much greater than the 
amount demanded of the French. No country ever 
rallied from such desolation with such spirit and vigor 
as she displayed — a result due not more to her abounding 
natural resources than to the spirit and pluck of her 
sons and daughters. Tried in the severest furnace, she 
iias proved to the world that she is worthy of its confi- 
dence, and that in her and her people are to be found the 



The New South. 9 

real elements of moral and material wealth. Her wealth 
to-day equals that of the entire country in I860, and 
practically all of this has been created since the 
close of the civil war. It took from that time until 
about 1880 to gather sufficient accumulations to serve 
as a basis of credit and of active operations — to inspire 
confidence and to acquire prestige sufficient to attract 
outside capital. Now our advantages are an open book, 
known and read of all men. To-day the North is sending 
to us not only her money, but her sons. They are com- 
ing this way looking for opportunities to aid in our 
industrial development. How different the outlook of 
to-day from that of even twenty years ago! 

At the beginning of this new century, (/ thousand 
millions of dollars will barely tell the amount of capital 
the South has invested in her manufacturing enterprises 
alone, and she is annually putting on the markets of the 
world her own handiwork to the value of more than 
one and a half billions of dollars. What does this 
mean? It means that the wealth of the South, consist- 
ing heretofore of her natural products alone, in their 
raw state has been infinitely multiplied in value by the 
application of her brains and her skilled hands. It 
means that instead of confining themselves to the pro- 
fessions and to politics, her sons are learning to erect, 
to equip and to operate the mill, and that they are con- 
verting their eight-cent cotton into a product worth 
more than one hundred cents to the pound. It means 
that instead of cutting the trees from her forests and 
selling them for fire-wood at |3.00 per cord, she is con- 
verting them into useful shapes that bring the cord 
value up to more than half a hundred dollars. It means 
that the South has learned that wasteful living and de- 
pendence on unskilled labor will keep her people always 



10 Tin: New South. 

as nicrc "hewers of wood and drawers of water/' It 
means that not only in the mills, but in technical schools 
everywhere, she is 1 raining the hands of her boys, and 
at the same lime storing their minds with useful knowl- 
edge. It means that the South is but upon the thresh- 
old of her development, and that this first decade of 
the twentieth century will witness a progress more 
marked than the most optimistic have ever dreamed of — 
a progress unparalleled in the history of any country. 
But what is there to substantiate these claims? Let me 
tell you. In tobacco the South is supplying the world 
with a quantity and a quality that are not equaled else- 
where. She produces 75 per cent of all the tobacco 
raised in the United States. The annual product of her 
cotton fields is more than 10,000,000 bales, against about 
half that much twenty years ago. With f 22,000,000 
invested at that period, she manufactured less than 
200,000 bales of her own cotton. To-day, with §150,- 
000,000 invested capital she is manufacturing more than 
1,500,000 bales. In cotton oil mills in 18S0 she had 
§3,500,000: now, more than §50,000,000. She is pro- 
ducing 200,000,000 more bushels of grain, and her agri- 
cultural products exceed in value those of 1880 by more 
than §000,000,000. 

In this beautiful section where we are gathered to-day 
I learn that the rice industry, in its infancy twenty 
years ago, now employs a vast multitude of men, and 
more than §12,000,000 of capital. The South is pro- 
ducing 51,000,000 tons of coal, more than eight times the 
entire output of the country in 1800. Her pig iron 
product exceeds that of 1800 by nearly 2,000,000 ions. 
In 1880 she had but a little more than 20,000 miles of 
railroad, while to-day 55,000 miles of well built and 
well managed railways bind together all her sections 



The New South. 11 

and tie them, as with ropes of steel, to her sister States 
throughout the Union. Many sections are manufactur- 
ing furniture on a large scale. My own State of North 
Carolina is selling furniture to Grand Rapids itself; 
many sections arc knitting and weaving; great engines 
are being built, and great ships from Southern shipyards 
are plowing the waters of the seas, and carrying the 
commerce of the nations. In many lines the increase 
in the South has been proportionately much larger than 
in other sections. This is especially true in cotton 
milling. Within twenty years the South has added 
7. Odd, (100 spindles to her mills, while the addition in 
other sections has been only 2,000,000 spindles. 

Since 1S00, the number of persons engaged in agri- 
culture in the South has increased 36 per cent, and the 
wage-earners in manufacturing have increased in num- 
ber 157 per cent — both percentages being greater than 
in the country at large. 

The capita] invested in manufacturing iias increased 
in the South 348 per cent, against an increase of only 
252 per cent in the United States — while in the value 
of products the increase in the South has been U20 per 
cent, against 142 per cent in the nation. The increase 
of value in farm property has been in the South 92 per 
rent, in the United States only 67 per cent. 

Within these ten years the banking resources of the 
South have been increased by about $300,000,000, aggre- 
gating now more than $800,000,000. This, with the 
Large amounts of foreign capital now seeking investment 
in our midst, has made possible the rapid growth. No- 
where is this growth more perceptible than in this quaint 
old city, whose unstinted hospitality we are enjoying. 
Although retaining much of the flavor of her early days, 
she is yet beautifully typical of the New South in her 



VI The New South. 

commercial activity, in the splendor .of her buildings, in 

the beauty of her paved streets, and in the enterprise of 
lier people. 

With vast beds of phosphate rock for fertilizers, with 
boundless acres that produce cotton almost spontane- 
ously, and with our own mills manufacturing our 
product, and with cheap labor, may we not safely claim 
to control the cotton situation of the world? With our 
hills and mountains stored with coal and iron, with 
boundless forests everywhere, and with hundreds of 
natural oil wells gushing forth continuously the cheapest 
of all fuel, what section can successfully compete with 
us in iron and steel industries? Zinc and copper, gold 
and silver and rarest gems abound in many sections. 
Our granite and marble are unsurpassed in beauty and 
durability. Oar soil responds readily to cultivation, 
and our trucking districts are supplying the populous 
sections of the North with fruits and vegetables. Ours 
is "a good laud, a land of brooks of water, of fountains 
and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land 
of wheat and barley, and vines and tig trees, and pome- 
granates; a land of oil, olive and honey; a land 
wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou 
shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are 
iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." 
We have a climate that strengthens and invigorates, 
it was within our borders that the old Spaniard claimed 
to have discovered the fountain of perpetual youth. 
Nature has indeed been lavish in her gifts, and our 
people are but just awakening to a realization of their 
possessions. We have room for and we need more peo- 
ple. Many have come among us, and mingling with us 
have become "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh.** 



The New South. 13 

We have the wannest welcome for all who come to unite 
with us iu developing this land that we love. 

I have said there is no new South. True, the old 
South of slavery lias passed away and the South of 
freedom has taken its place. The South of 1860 strove 
to defend what she conceived to be her rights. But the 
South of this twentieth century, the Renewed South, if 
you please, realizes that it was a blessing in disguise 
that took away her dependence on the slave and the 
farm, and gave her self reliance and the diversified 
industries that are to-day blessing our people with plenty 
and prosperity. The South has learned that not only 
is the work of the free negro of greater value than that 
of the slave, but that freeing him has freed the white 
man from the idea that manual labor was for the negro 
alone, and rich and poor alike are now training their 
sons to work. 

We thank God for universal freedom! 

Another great factor in our upbuilding is the edu- 
cational awakening among our people. Long time we 
hung our heads in shame and confessed our enormous 
percentage of illiteracy, but to-day Southern hands and 
Southern hearts, and Northern hands and Northern 
hearts are united in their one purpose and effort to edu- 
cate (/// the people, and more money is being spent for 
that purpose than ever before in our history. The 
bright light of education is illumining our Southern 
skies, and every passing day brings fuller acknowledg- 
ment of the genius of Southern manhood, in learning, in 
the arts, in industrial and commercial lines. Only a 
little while ago a young Southerner, and a college class- 
mate of mine, from a little country village in North 
( Carolina, was called to cultured Boston, where, as editor 
of the Atlantic Monthly, he tilled with distinction the 



14 The New South. 

chair that James Russell Lowell and other New England 
literary celebrities had been proud to occupy. And 
never in its distinguished history has that magazine 
attained higher literary excellence, wider popularity and 
larger influence than during his occupancy of the edi- 
torial chair. That young man is to-day making the 
World's Work, in the city of New York, a mighty factor 
in the literary and industrial life of the country, and 
he is one of the recognized leaders in the great educa- 
tional campaign now waging in the South. Just three 
weeks ago, at the hands of Grover Cleveland and others, 
a scholarly young Virginian, Woodrow Wilson, was 
placed at the head of Princeton College. 

Native Southerners guide the destinies of the National 
City Bank and the National Bank of Commerce, in New 
York, leading financial institutions in this country. 

Another Southerner, and North Carolinian, too, is the 
active head of the English-American Tobacco Company, 
whose great commercial arms are now reaching out over 
the civilized world. This young man and his immediate 
family have recently invested nearly a million dollars 
in higher education in North Carolina. So, in the sacred 
pulpit, in the learned professions, in the great banking 
institutions, in the management of great railways, at 
the head of the American Bankers' Association, in every 
line where brain and character and genius count, the 
sons of the South are found. We are proud of them. 
Among all our rich possessions, we count as our chiefest 
and best our loyal sons and daughters. These are our 
jewels. "Our sons are as plants, grown up in their 
youth ; our daughters as corner stones, polished after 
the similitude of a palace." 

There is another matter which has been misunder- 
stood, and perhaps ought not to be omitted in this discus- 



The New South. 15 

sion. Another war is being waged. Another declara- 
tion of independence lias been proclaimed, and is being 
defended. It is the emancipation of the white man. 
When the great Lincoln issued his proclamation of free 
dom, the world applauded. The most intense Southerner 
to-day rejoices that the negro's freedom was accom- 
plished. But scarcely any well informed person is now 
found who does not recognize that an egregious mistake 
was made when, through the ballot, the balance of 
political power was placed in the hands of a mass of 
ignorant people, without the least conception of the 
meaning of government. The South honors the negro. 
She can never forget the loyal fidelity with which he 
stood by the old home, and by the women and children 
when the husbands and fathers and sons were gone to 
the war. 

Longing for freedom, and knowing the meaning of the 
battle that was waging, he never failed in his devotion 
to the interest of his old master. History records no 
similar devotion among any people. The South can not 
forget these things, and because of them she gives the 
negro her sincerest friendship. But she believes that 
the best interests of both races demand that the control 
of government should be in the hands of intelligent men. 
and it is to this end that recent constitutional changes 
have been made, and educational restrictions imposed. 
And thus in various ways we are undergoing the process 
of a new emancipation. 

Already the benefits are manifest in the impetus that 
has been given to the cause of education. And, unless 
our wisest men are mistaken, a few years will convince 
the world of the wisdom of what now seems to be rather 
heroic action. Let criticism be withheld until results 



16 The New South. 

are seen. We ask your patience, and we claim your con- 
fidence. 

Time works wonderful changes in our ideas. The 
youngest of us remembers when the prejudice against 
Northern men was very bitter, and when the name of 
the great man who issued the proclamation of freedom 
was cordially haled by many in the South. Not so in 
this good day. Around me I see men and women of 
every section — men and women of the South and of the 
North. Not many of these were among those who drew 
the sword and fought each other, but they are the sous 
and daughters of those grand old heroes who wore the 
blue, and equally grand old heroes who wore the gray. 
u*e sit together here under the same flag, at perfect 
peace — and we rejoice together that we are one people, 
cue in spirit, one in purpose, one in devotion to our com- 
mon country. 

At a meeting of the New England Society in New 
York City in 1887, the eloquent Southerner, Henry AY. 
Grady, said that Abraham Lincoln was the first typical 
American, containing within himself all the strength 
aud gentleness, all the majesty and grace of the Repub- 
lic, that in his ardent nature were found the virtues of 
both the Virginia Cavalier and the New England Puri- 
tan, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of both 
were lost. 

The North applauded these words, and the South 
adopted and re-echoed them as her own. From that 
day to this, stronger and stronger has grown the tie of 
Union, weaker and weaker the bar of separation, until 
iii our common grief around McKinley's bier the last 
trace of the imaginary line that separated us was wiped 
out forever, and we became one and indissoluble — a 



The New South. 17 

reunited country. What God hath joined together, let 
not man put asunder! 

Then, if all these things are true; if the South, after 
bravely fighting for what she conceived to be her rights, 
laid down her arms in submission to her stronger .foe; 
if then, instead of sulking in her tent, she raised the 
"stars and stripes" above her head, and proclaimed to 
the world that these were her colors; if, when her conn- 
try called to arms again, she sent her bravest and best, 
giving the first blood in Worth Bagley, and unsurpassed 
instances of courage and bravery in her Hobson and her 
Bine and her Shipp, and in those grand old veterans, 
Joe Wheeler and Fitzhugh Lee; if her sons and daugh- 
ters have now turned their hands to lines of industry, 
and are building up the material interests of the conn- 
try; if she has sent her Hendrix and her Stillman, her 
Carlisle, her Duke ami her Rushton to manage the great 
financial institutions of the metropolitan cities; if she 
has sent her sons to direct the great railway systems 
that are building up the waste places; if she has giver. 
her lawyers to interpret the law, her editors and scholars 
to teach the people, and her ministers to point out the 
way of life; if in all these things she has proven her 
loyalty and her worthiness, and has been received as an 
equal, is it not time that she should lie given, too, a 
political equality, and that we hear no more the cry that 
this or that man, worthy though he may be of the very 
highest honors, must be ignored because, forsooth, he is 
a Southern man? Away with such inconsistency! Away 
with sectionalism forever ! Let our topic be no more the 
North or the South, but forevermore, "The Union. r 
We are brethren, let us live as such. And henceforth. 
in this glad land of the free, let men be recognized for 
fitness only, and not because of their local habitation. 



j,s The New South. 

I have now tried to tell you what the South was, and 
what she is to-day. I would that I might lift the veil 
that hides the future and reveal to you what she shall 
be. If from the depths and desolation of such abject 
poverty she has risen with such vigor and strength, and, 
with such scant resources, has accomplished so much 
during the past twenty years, what may we not expect 
from the record of the next decade, starting as it does 
from the vantage ground of present prosperity, with 
our vast accumulations and our unlimited credit, with 
our countless mills and factories, and with the easier 
access, which the Isthmian canal will give us, to the 
markets of the Orient, whose teeming millions are in 
need of the very supplies that we can most readily fur- 
nish? It has not entered into the mind of man to con- 
ceive what the coming years shall bring. The future is 
bright with hope. Let us go forward, then, realizing 
that to whom much is given, of them much shall be 
required. 

Relying upon the Divine Leader, and upon the strong 
arm of the American people, let us take our place at the 
head of the nations of the earth and put forth every 
effort to make this country of ours a beacon light — an 
object lesson, illustrating the grandeur of a republic — 
spreading the light of American civilization, and inspir- 
ing men everywhere with a love of freedom and of right. 






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